Welcome Home!

Remember the quaint "Home Sweet Home" wall hangings of yesteryear? The familiar embroideries are unfortunately disappearing into antiquity. The warm welcome that once graced many a mantle has been rendered obsolete by our fast moving and mobile society. The hallmark of home and hearth that used to radiate calm and serenity now sits lonely, downcast and dejected, collecting dust in the attic or flea market, if not already disposed with the refuse.

Unfortunately, these relics are now often replaced by some flashy travel poster urging us to leave home! In these unstable times, even   people on the go can hardly find themselves a place. What else can we expect in a rushed and bewildering age of Fast Foods, Eat Outs and Drive-Thrus?

These are not just nostalgic memories of a simpler time. We are trying to stay closer to home after 9/1l, searching for more quality, permanence and meaning in life.

"Home" is more than just a physical location with a mailing address. A house is only a utilitarian structure of iron and concrete, while a "Home" runs much deeper than a finished basement. A "Home" is built on foundations of love and pillars of dedication, permeated with a solid sense of faith, purpose and tradition.

"Home Sweet Home" sounds rather corny and old fashioned in today's rapidly changing world, when Technology and the Internet take us all over cyberspace without actually being anywhere. Many of us casually check in and out of residences and relationships with motel-like ease and efficiency, replacing time-honored values with fleeting arrangements.

Today's Homeless are not just poor unfortunate souls sleeping in parks and cardboard boxes. Homelessness also affects the wealthy and uppity classes who disdain the plain and homely, living it up in high rise buildings, spacious mansions and expensive condominiums. Realtors may list multi million dollar properties, but those are mere houses, not really homes. In this regard, Donald Trump, too, is homeless.

A House looks much better in mint condition, while a Home looks better lived in. "Home" represents an inner spiritual dimension, not just interior design. The values of a Jewish Home rise dramatically with each Mezuzah on the doors, Torah books in the library, Kosher observance in the Kitchen, and charity begins at home with the traditional 'Pushka' can.

A genuine home is a precious commodity that money can't buy.

Home is where the heart is, and the Seder is the heart of Passover, more than just a sumptuous supper or a religious recital. The Passover Seder also includes the Bitter Herbs, but it is our "Home Sweet Home," as we wish each other a "Zissen Pesach."

A generation ago it used to be a Passover tradition to go back for Passover to visit with the elderly Zaidys and Bubbys who lived back in the Bronx or Brooklyn.

As demographics changed and expanded, we now trek home to Passover from differing distances, directions, challenges and walks of life. Yet regardless of where we come from, we're all part of then home team.

Statistically, more of us will attend the Seder as guests rather than hosts, visiting with parents, children or friends. Some people prefer to leave their year-round home for the convenience of a Kosher-for-Passover hotel.

Yet, wherever we go to celebrate the Seder, Passover is a homecoming. Home away from home, Passover unites us with our origins and traditions. Just joining together at the Seder table confirms our sense of roots and belonging, while the Matzah, Wine Cups and the Haggadah reading help drive the point home.

Passover allows us all to feel at home, to discuss, ask and raise questions. We eat and digest history, chew on new insights and drink in the vintage wisdom of generations. We relive the past, bond in the present, and share a future vision of the Ultimate Redemption, the ingathering of the exiles and our return home.